University of San Diego - a Review
There has been a hostile woke takeover at USD, led by Pres. Harris with the acquiescence of the Board of Trustees. Pres. Harris has conducted this hostile takeover without much transparency, with a select few driving the process. The Anti-Racism Task Force was the epitome of racially inflammatory and divisive leadership, which will lead to true divisiveness and alienation from the campus for many. New radical programs come down as, in effect, dictates from a distant leader, and many faculty and students, no doubt, will hardly be able to recognize the transformed university.
CSJ-DEI increasingly define the curriculum to the exclusion of other perspectives. Hiring of faculty is now much more likely to be based on racial and sexual classifications, with less focus on specific academic credentials. The push is creating a racially divisive atmosphere where students, faculty, and staff walk on eggshells or stay silent if they do not agree with USD’s revised CSJ-DEI mission. Fealty to the CSJ-DEI agenda is going to be necessary for future faculty hires, and current faculty will be evaluated on the basis of their adherence to this ideology. Leaders across the campus are selected for their adherence to CSJ-DEI tenets--as are new members of the Board of Trustees. The first goal of the Board is student success. One can make a case given the CSJ/DEI being increasingly installed, that this goal of student success is increasingly at risk. The emphasis on DEI and CSJ must attenuate meritocracy in the USD culture and will degrade the quality and desirability of hiring a USD graduate. Students and parents can assume an increase in cancellation culture and bullying.
USD will change direction only when students, parents, alumni, donors, and faculty unite to push back against this hostile takeover. Together these constituents could demand a commitment to excellence, instead of a commitment to a stilted, misnamed “anti-racism.” Together they could drive initiatives to better USD, instead of allowing USD to join other lemming-institutions around the country in walking off the critical social justice cliff. Together they could demand excellence in liberal education instead of an atmosphere of intolerance and group think.
USD needs a new vision of the graduate, much like its old one. The USD graduates must be faithful, competent in their fields, capable of independent critical thinking, knowledgeable about the history of their country and civilization, and appreciative of its glories and the challenges of its true faults. The new woke USD undermines all that is good and salutary in this vision. It is not too late to change course, and all need to rise to meet this challenge.